ChosenRebel's Blog

Wednesday is for Prayer

How can we cry out for deliverance and rescue if we don’t know the precipice-like nearness of our peril?

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
(Psalm 70:1)

As I read the opening verse of Psalm 70, I confess I was unmoved. I couldn’t relate. I don’t feel like I am in a desperate situation. But David did. He wanted help from God and he wanted it fast. And he wasn’t shy about what he wanted to happen to his opponents who were creating his desperate situation.

Let them be put to shame and
confusion
         who seek my life
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
         who delight in my hurt!
Let them turn back because of their shame
who say “Aha, Aha!” (v. 2-3)

Strong stuff! But David doesn’t dwell on the ruin of his persecutors. Instead he turns to praise in verse 4 and humble, desperate petition in verse 5.

May all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you! (v. 4)
May those who love your salvation
say evermore, “God is great!”

We only cry out to God when we know the extremity of need, when our need sinks to a “back against the wall” experience for deliverance we turn to the Deliverer. Why do we so rarely get to this point in our spiritual journey? I’m not sure I’m smart enough to figure out any good answers to that question but I am sure of this: My growth in Christ is intimately tied to my sense of desperate need for Him. 

“Lord, it grieves me that my initial reaction to Psalm 70 was so unmoving. It tells me that my sense of dependence upon You is tepid and bloodless. So Lord, my cry to You is that You who know my heart’s need would draw that heart  to Yourself and make my heart cry out with joy and passion, “God is great!” (vs. 4)